Fireball Sightings Reported Across New Jersey and the East Coast: 'We Saw a Big Bright Light'

Published on April 12, 2024 05:44PM EDT

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a fireball!

The American Meteor Society (AMS) which tracks reports of meteor and fireball sightings around the world, said it received 47 reports of a "fireball" sighting across the East Coast that occurred around 3:45 a.m. ET (07:45 UT) on the morning of Wednesday, April 10.

The organization received 10 videos and two photos of the apparent fireball sighting, which came 6 days after the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that was centered near Lebanon, N.J.

Sightings were made in N.J., Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania, according to the AMS — a not-for-profit organization with the goal "to encourage and promote research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are directly interested in meteoric astronomy," according to the site.

Bruce Snyder, a resident of North Coventry Township, Pa., told ABC affiliate ABC 6 Action News that he was looking over home security footage to check in his cats when he saw the phenomena.

"We were looking at the footage and we saw a big bright light," Snyder told the local news site. "As it went through the sky we saw a flash at the end. So I don't know if that was it bursting up."

Action News took footage of the apparent fireball to the director of the Edelman Planetarium at Rowan University, Amy Barraclough, who confirmed she saw a fireball, which is a type of meteor, in the footage.

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"As it's falling through Earth's atmosphere, it's interacting with the oxygen that we have in our own atmosphere, and it's causing that beautiful green color that you see in all of those videos,' Barraclough explained to Action News.

The fireball incident is likely the first of many that is going to happen in the area within the next few months. The Lyrid meteor shower, which Barraclough said is known for bright fireballs, will begin on April 15.